Motion sickness — what is it?

Motion sickness — what is it? Sometimes we deny ourselves the pleasure to travel, just because on a bus, plane or in a car, we can become very ill, feel nauseous and dizzy. However, this is not a reason to give up traveling and to lose the opportunity to explore our beautiful planet. Instead, it’s much better to enhance the body balance — the vestibular apparatus. Methods of training vestibular apparatus will deal with hateful felling of nausea and weakness in transport.

First you need to understand some of the terminology. Perhaps you have heard or seen on the Internet such a thing as kinetosis. This is particularly bad condition, which occur when a person is traveling on some vehicles, such as on planes, ships, trains or cars.

And that each of these conditions has an appropriate name. For example if a person feels ill during cruises, then this condition is often called "seasickness". Car sickness characterizes a feeling of car nausea. Some people use a simple name — the motion sickness.

So why this is happening? The explanation begins with the fact that when traveling by sea a ship is swaying on the waves, when you drive a car, your car is also shakes, because the road is not always perfect, there are hills and also the vehicle is moving. Even in the sky, when traveling by air, your body feels vacillation of the aircraft. This is called airsickness. Thus the human vestibular system is irritated, occur involuntary adaptive responses.

What is this mysterious vestibular apparatus? The vestibular apparatus is the equitable organ of the human body like the liver or the heart. It allows you to determine the position and movement of the body in space even with closed eyes.

This organ of balance consists of three channels in a form of bent tubes and two membranous bags filled with a special fluid — endolymph. These bags are covered with fibers inside transcendental receptor. When our body changes position, the membrane begins to slide on the receptors subduing them in one direction or another.

In deaf people vestibular apparatus does not work, but they control their movements through the receptor and tactile (skin) sensitivity, which responds to the force of gravity.

Final development of the vestibular apparatus ends by the age of 10-12, and sometimes 15 years. By this time, it would be nice to "pump it up", to strengthen it, so your child doesn’t suffer from travel sickness. Better start from childhood as soon as the baby learns to walk independently. Be careful, if you notice that your kid gets pale on a bus or in a car, complaining of weakness and dizziness it can be a sign of malfunction of the vestibular apparatus. How can you help your son or daughter to deal with this problem? As a matter of fact, ordinary swings can be very helpful. Yes, roller coasters (within reason, of course) are an excellent training for the vestibular system of the baby. You can start with swings on your backyard on your neighborhood’s playground, start from 3 minutes to 10-15 a day and swing your baby slowly. Ideal if such a fun practice supported by the usual morning exercises with tilt and head and torso twists.

Of course if you know that your little one gets severe motion sickness and you need to travel for a long distance you better have pills that can reduce dizziness and improve your child’s condition. Nowadays, you can find different medicines for this purpose. They are easy to find, you can buy motion sickness medicines online or in regular drugstores. But make sure you consult a pediatrician about the most effective and safe pills for a young organism. The specialist may suggest you to try Antivert. This medicine is designed specifically to save you from nausea during traveling. You can buy Antivert online with fast shipping. If you are looking for a reliable and cheap online pharmacy, you can search for a Spain pharmacy online.   Also it is available in the majority of traditional drugstores.

But what about adults? Motion sickness is your enemy number one? Do aerobics, jog, play basketball, volleyball and football. These activities are very useful for the body equilibrium during movement on the ground at different speeds excitability of the vestibular system is sharply reduced. What else can you do? Start with simple exercises (in the morning or during the day).

1. 1. Turn your head in different directions while standing — 20 times
2. 2. Turn your torso to the max in different directions - 20 times
3. 3. When you are walking tilt your torso back and forth 5 times and when standing — 10 times
4. 4. Jump on your toes 40-50 times within 30 seconds. Run and walk in place. Jump with turns 15 times

Do not overdo, stop is you’re not feeling well.

By the way, you can stop motion sickness using things that you have at home or use for fun. For example, a rocking chair, hammock, the rides. However, it is better to do it on an empty stomach. Abundant lunch or dinner exacerbates discomfort during movement.

Here is one of the most effective exercises to combat dizziness: cross your legs, press them tightly to one another. Tighten the muscles of the buttocks, the abdomen and thighs for 5-8 seconds and then relax. Repeat this exercise for 10-15 minutes. This exercise will improve blood flow to the brain, activates the central nervous system. Dizziness should be reduced.

It is necessary to train your organ of balance. But it takes a long time. We use vehicles every day. So what to do in this situation? You can use special medicines, such as Meclizine, it reduces the sensitivity of the vestibular apparatus. This medicine is effective and affordable; you can purchase it in any drugstore or buy Meclizine online.

 As for folk remedies — the best helper is the ginger root. Scientists from the American Research Laboratory of herbal medicine in Salt Lake City showed that ginger root powder exceeds all other folk remedies when it comes to motion sickness. To regain a sense of balance, take one gram of powder of dried ginger root. If you still feel sick, eat a couple of ginger cookies.

Also, you may feel extremely bad when moving, feeling motion sickness symptoms due to inner ear disease, hormonal disorders, diseases of the central nervous system, heart conditions, problems with the blood vessels, spinal injury, brain, severe stress.

Some people are not even aware that they have some problems with the vestibular apparatus. This is what vestibular tests are for. In other words — motion sickness diagnosis. Basically you perform special exercises and a physician analyzes the movement of the eyeballs and diagnoses your condition. The specialist may prescribe blood tests, MRIs of the brain, electrocardiogram, additional tests of the blood vessels of the head and the neck.

Unbelievable but true, the Chinese say that on out body there is a special point that is responsible for controlling the vestibular apparatus. This saving point is exactly in the middle of the wrist, a distance of three fingers from the top crease of the wrist. With a finger of the opposite hand put some pressure on this point, you can rub your hand clockwise and counterclockwise. Perform this method for 3-7 minutes. However, modern medical science hasn’t proven the effectiveness of this practice. It is better not to take a risk and use reliable medicines. For example Dramamine. You can buy Dramamine online at lowest price or you can get it in many drugstores.